Background and objectives

The 5th United Nations Ocean Forum on trade-related aspects of SDG 14 will take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on 3–5 March 2025, and will be co-chaired by France and Costa Rica. 

The Forum offers a unique platform to align trade and economic policies with sustainable ocean use. This is crucial to achieving global climate objectives, as well as trade-related targets of Sustainable Development Goal 14, particularly targets 1, 4, 6, 7, and b.

Translation will be available in all 6 UN official languages.

The event will feature a high-level segment, and then five thematic sessions:

1. Trade trends
2. NDCs for ocean sectors
3. South-South trade
4. Innovative marine products
5. Blue finance

There will also be several side events focusing on the links between trade policy, the ocean economy, and climate action.

The 5th edition of the Forum builds on the work of previous fora, and will help prepare for the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference on 9–13 June 2025, to be held in Nice, France – as well as the Blue Economy and Finance Forum on 7–8 June 2025 to be held in Monaco.

The main outcome of the Forum

A set of coherent policy recommendations at the Forum, for the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France.

The recommendations will be compiled by the co-chairs of the Forum (France and Costa Rica) in the form of the Chairs’ summary with the support of the UNCTAD Secretariat. The co-chairs and Secretariat will disseminate their summary with the policy recommendations to all New York and Geneva UN Missions.

The forum will also seek to set a renewed course of action for UN agencies and other partner agencies to:

• Support the success of the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice and prepare the ground for the deposit of action-oriented voluntary commitments related to the ocean economy;
• Serve as a coordination mechanism for common actions by partners to implement the recommendations within their own capacities and resources;
• Respond to the unique adaptation challenges faced by climate-vulnerable states, especially Small Island Developing States and Coastal States considering UNCTAD’s SIDS strategy.

The forum will also serve as a platform to launch the following initiatives:

• A renewed Ocean Trade database under UNCTAD Stats, with country and aggregated level data, indicators and visualisation features.
• UNDESA project on Evidence-based Climate Action through Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation for Caribbean SIDS (DITC-Stats Unit/DITL) and potentially transform it into a voluntary commitment under the UNOC-3 2025.
• A proposal for a UN Task Force on the development of the Seaweed sector.